MISSING CLASSMATES

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

For those of us not living in OKC it's been difficult to find out exactly what's going on with regards to the Harding building. I'll try to explain (as far as I understand) what has happened. Apparently the OKC School Board has proposed a big restructuring of the public schools that will close 15 schools and reconfigure or relocate 17 others. The Harding building was classified as needing too many repairs and the two charter schools, Harding Charter Prep (HCP) and Harding Fine Arts Academy (HFAA) were offered "new" locations - Oklahoma Centennial High School on N. Kelley and Putnam Heights Elementary, both slated for closure.

It appears that a lot of the planning has been under the radar. For a spirited defense of Harding, try googling Elizabeth Prosser's "Point of View" that appeared in the OKC newspaper on February 20, 2019.

Charter Prep decided to move to the N. Kelley site. They will be there next fall. I do not know if they intend to keep the Harding name or not. The Fine Arts school and their board looked at Putnam Heights and rejected it for numerous reasons, including a lack of an auditorium or gym suitable for high school students, no science labs, no adult plumbing, and no parking. They also looked at other facilities, but eventually decided that they want to remain in the Harding building and possibly purchase it. They realize that the 96 year old building needs repairs and are willing to deal with that. See HFAA on Facebook for additional information.

At a Mar. 11th meeting, the Okla. City School Board voted unanimously to declare 5 properties (including Harding) as surplus. There is a write-up of this on Mar. 12. You can google it under "Building offered for relocation needs repairs" by Tim Willert.

A meeting with the HFAA board and its attorneys was scheduled for late last week, according to an email my sister received. She later received another email saying "all is well." If anyone has further knowledge of the situation, please share. I will try to post the Liz Prosser letter in our user forums.

Cindy Anderson Cochran Mar. 18, 2019

This has taken awhile ,but I wanted to send this information. At the reunion last year, several of us were exchanging info on classmates that were not present. Several of us remembered Susan Scruggs. Susan did not graduate with us. She moved to Tennessee our junior year, I think. We remembered her fondly but no one seemed to know any thing about her in the recent years. It took me awhile, but I finally managed to contact her brother David. ( first graduation class 1958) He did reply to my letters. Sadly, he told me that Susan had died several years ago We have a nice conversation and he was pleased that some of us remembered her and wanted to find her. He said that Susan would have been thrilled, that she had always missed her Harding friends . I'm ready for another reunion. Kathy Higginbotham McNeal